


May we stay lost on our way home

by Drhair76



Series: safe from the world (though the world will try) [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: And Diego, But mostly all the children, Eudora loves all the children, F/M, Foster Care, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Major Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Protective Diego Hargreeves, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, Yi Jin is a badass, diego is soft, honestly @ diego pls adopt me, including me, the academy is now a home for troubled kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-14 21:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18484408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drhair76/pseuds/Drhair76
Summary: There was a small Asian girl making a fuss in the front of the ring. She was short, about as tall as Diego's shoulder. She had long dark hair pulled into two braids and was wearing a small backpack.or, How the umbrella academy turns from a broken superhero factory into a home for troubled kids.





	1. Yi Jin

**Author's Note:**

> okay, I dont want to see any comments saying 'aniya, you already have two wips, why are you starting a new series?' 
> 
> I knowwww, but this idea would not stop pestering me so,,,,here we are.

It wasn't planned.  
  
If Diego was being honest, most of the things that he did wasn't.  
  
He walked into work, late as usual, completely ready to be yelled at and get threatened with the promise of firing for the seventh time in a row when he heard what sounded like a kid. So he looked and-  
  
It was.  
  
There was a small Asian girl making a fuss in the front of the ring. She was short, about as tall as Diego's shoulder. She had long dark hair pulled into two braids and was wearing a small backpack.  
  
To Diego, who was pretty well versed in these cases, everything about the girl screamed runaway. The stuffed pack, the dirtied appearance, the desperate look. And God, she was young.  
  
She couldn't have been older than sixteen.  
  
"Please." She begged. "I can fight. I'm good at it. Just give me a chance."  
  
Al shook his head. "No. I'm sorry but I don't allow minors to fight without a parent or guardian's permission."    
  
The girl's shoulders dropped and Diego watched her leave the gym. He would feel more empathetic if he didn't agree with Al's rule.  
  
And if he wasn't about to get chewed out for being late.  
  
...  
  
He left the ring through the side door like he did every night. The hours he worked made it hard for him to actually get a full night's rest but there was a convenience store robbery happening and it wasn't like Diego could just leave it up to law enforcement.  
  
And on a side note, he kinda really hoped to run into Eudo _-Patch_.  
  
Recently they've been rekindling their little fling, fliting back and forth and talking more often, but now he wanted to do it right. Take her out on proper dates rather than just hooking up like they used to.

  
Although, maybe interrupting her crime scenes weren't the best way to get on her good side.  
  
A sound from near the dumpster made Diego turn and quickly draw a knife. A million scenarios ran through his mind, from a gunman to small raccoon, but he wasn't expecting a familiar head to peek out.  
  
It was the girl from earlier, except this time she had small cut across her face as if she had gotten into a fight.

He lowered his knife and the girl shuffled back confusedly.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "Are you hurt?"

She didn't answer, but she didn't run off and that seemed like an answer to him. He could see the was she kept most of her weight in her left leg.

"I can help you if you need it." He offered.

The girl hesitated for a brief moment. "You- you can help me? How?"  
  
She reminded Diego of himself from when he was seventeen and looking for a place to stay. Just begging for somewhere to be safe that he took pity on her.  
  
So he offered her a place to stay.  
  
...  
  
She was timid around him.  
  
It took Diego awhile to realize it, but she was frightened of him. Obviously, there was someone in her life who was not kind to her and the thought of it made Diego boil with rage.  
  
But he stayed calm, he went slow, he offered her food and a change of clothes and stopped carrying his knives around everywhere.  
  
Slowly Yi Jin relaxed. She started going places around the academy without asking permission, she used the workout room regularly, she followed Diego to work and talked with some of the other boxers.  
  
She opened up more with him.  
  
From what Diego gathered about her, she ran away from home because her parents were uptight with hard expectations. She was supposed to finish high school and apply from medical school to become a doctor, but all she wanted was to box.  
  
Diego figured that a better role model would tell Yi Jin to head back home, maybe try to compromise with her father instead of running away, but Diego never said he was a role model.  
  
So he let her decorate a spare room.  
  
...  
  
A week went by, then two, then three and Diego realized that he had somehow managed to actually positively impact Yi Jin.  
  
He didn't really know how.  
  
She was happier, healthier, pulling Diego around every which way to spar or go see a band. (Diego tried to defer that task off to Klaus, but Yi Jin wasn't having it.)  
  
He knew that she played the electric guitar, she loved horror movies, her favorite breakfast cereal was frosted flakes and she was definitely not straight with the way she spoke about Sandra Bullock.  
  
Somehow, without Diego's knowledge, (although he had a very strong suspicion it was Klaus) Yi Jin found out about Patch.  
  
She pestered him about it all day, not letting up for a single second.  
  
"So do you like her?"  
  
"Can I meet her?"  
  
"Is she pretty?"  
  
"She's a badass, right?"  
  
"Are you going to see her?"  
  
Diego made a mental note to throttle Klaus later and nudged Yi Jin for the fifth time before gesturing to the television.  
  
"Shut up. I'm trying to watch."  
  
Diego figured that Sandra Bullock stealing a diamond necklace with a bunch of other beautiful women would be enough to distract the girl, but Yi Jin had a one track mind.  
  
"You should invite her over and watch it with her."  
  
Diego exhaled, raising an eyebrow at the girl. She smiled innocently at him, staring right back.  
  
"Fine." He relented. Yi Jin cheered and Diego rolled his eyes. "I'll invite her here, but you have to be gone. Go skateboarding or go to the thrift store with Klaus, I don't care."  
  
Yi Jin nodded and expectantly held out a hand. Diego while grumbling, wondering when he became an ATM machine, dropped twenty dollars into the small hand.  
  
She hopped up, patted Diego's head once (which Diego promptly swatted at) and sprinted up the staircase, calling Klaus' name.  
  
Diego was obediently calling up Patch to invite her over and sighing about the loss of his twenty dollars when he realized that somehow along the way of his ridiculous and crazy life, he accidentally adopted a troubled teenage girl.  
  
A teenage girl who begged him for money, played electric guitar at the worse times of night, used all the hot water, consistently laid him out in the ring and definitely knew _way_ too much about his love life.  
  
And then, a split second later, he realized that he wouldn't trade her up for anything.


	2. Dean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "This is Dean." Yi Jin said softly. Her tone of voice made Diego frown. 
> 
> Yi Jin didn't do softly.

Yi Jin was calling his name.    
  
Diego put down his broom, grateful for any interruption from his mind numbing job. He walked over to the equipment where Yi Jin was supposed to be restocking the tape (because she ended up charming a job out of Al so she could pay to go thrift shopping instead of Diego going broke.)   
  
Instead of doing her job, Yi was talking to a boy.   
  
Diego wouldn't consider himself over protective in any way, but he couldn't otherwise explain the immediately urge to stop Yi Jin from talking to the kid.    
  
She turned to him and Diego actually looked at the boy and the dislike melted away.    
  
He was decently built, with dark brown skin and tightly curled dark brown hair. He had deep bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in days and with the way he was blinking rapidly, Diego wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't.   
  
"This is Dean." Yi Jin said softly. Her tone of voice made Diego frown.    
  
Yi Jin didn't do softly.    
  
The last time Yi Jin spoke softly around him was about two months ago when she was still scared to ask for things at the academy.   
  
"Dean." Diego threw a confused glanced at the girl before holding out a hand to Dean. "Hey, I'm Diego."    
  
The boy hesitated for a second before shaking Diego's hand. His grip was strong.    
  
"Are you looking to box here or something?"    
  
The boy shook his head. "No, I'm not old enough." His shoulders dropped. "I want to though."   
  
Diego nodded. "Yeah, well. You look about seventeen? All you need is a parent's permission and you should be good to go. Or just another year and if you still want to Al'll definitely love to have you box."    
  
Dean's gaze found the floor and Diego's expert eye caught on the slight shake of his shoulders. "Right."   
  
"Well, he could still box right?" Yi Jin spoke up. "With us, at the academy?”   
  
Diego blinked at her. Dean looked back up at him hopefully.    
  
There was something that Yi was trying to tell him but for the life of him he couldn't grasp it. She raised her eyebrow expectantly and subtly nodded her head, as if trying to tell Diego what to say.    
  
"Um, I'm not-"    
  
Dean nodded, taking a small step back, towards the hall. "It's fine, I'll find somewhere else."   
  
A horrible image filtered through Diego's mind. A seventeen year old joining a fight club, ending up with his body bruised and bloody, dying somewhere in a ditch that no one knew about. 

  
"No!" Diego exclaimed, startling both Dean and Yi Jin. "No. I mean, I have no problem training you. We're got a gym at the academy. And there is plenty of room if you needed a place to sleep."    
  
Dean's dark eyes flit from Diego's concerned gaze to Yi Jin's excited gaze. "Really?"   
  
"Yeah." Diego nodded.    
  
Yi Jin bounced once on her toes and gently nudged the boy. "Say yes."    
  
Dean fumbled but eventually nodded, a cheek splitting toothy smile breaking out over his face. "Yes please."    
...   
  
Dean fit into Diego's life easily.    
  
He was hardworking, strong, but more importantly he and Yi Jin got along easy.    
  
Diego didn't quite understand it, but it seemed like Dean was the perfect older brother, as if he's been one before. It didn't take long for him and Yi to become inseparable.    
  
Diego woke up late one morning after a long night of patrolling and walked down into the kitchen. Yi and Dean were there, along with Klaus and Grace.

Grace seemed completely unbothered when Yi Jin showed up at the academy, followed by Dean. She treated them about the same way she treated Diego when he was young: with care and genuine compassion.

She fixed Dean's jacket whenever it got torn,

she made them breakfast whenever Yi wanted something really elaborate that Diego didn't even know existed, she was good for them. 

And it seemed to him, that they were good for her. 

Even though Grace didn't need to go, Dean and Yi Jin took her shopping, Dean started a faux book club with her and Pogo and they would all take walks together while they waited for Diego to get back from work. 

Klaus also didn't seem to mind Yi and Dean. He was obviously confused when he walked into the den one day and saw Diego and Yi Jin sitting there watching a horror movie, but he quickly got over his shock and plopped right down next to him. 

Yi seemed to  _ adore _ Klaus. 

They were constantly taking off together, doing God knows what which was plenty worrying already considering neither of them had money. 

But then both Klaus and Yi Jin got a job and suddenly it was a lot  _ more  _ worrying. Dean started tagging along with them and the only reason Diego hasn't tailed them to find out where they were going is because Dean was very responsible and street smart. 

If there was any trouble, he would be the one to get them out of it. 

 But  _ this _ , this was something completely different. 

Every surface-every  _ single _ surface- was covered in flour. Somehow, there was egg dropping down from the top of the fridge and a large collection of fruit fillings were on the middle table. 

Grace was sitting on a stool looking horrified. It seems like she hasn't made a move to get up, which was weird considering her programming would be telling her to start cleaning as soon as possible. Klaus and Yi Jin were arguing about whether they should use strawberry or not. Somehow, both had gotten a decent dusting of flour on them because Yi's black hair was actually light with the powder. 

Dean was off to the side, he magically wasn't covered in flour and was simply poking at the dough creations worriedly. Upon closer inspection, Diego could see why. The weirdly shaped and hollow dough swirls had begun to collapse, and Diego was pretty sure that the way Diego was poking at them was  _ not  _ helping matters much. 

“I-I think we were supposed to use room temperature butter.” He mumbled with a frown. 

Grace nodded subtly but didn't move to help him fix it, most likely because of the way Yi Jin was swinging her arms as she and Klaus argued. 

“He likes strawberries! I've seen him eat them a million times.” She yelled. 

Klaus crossed his arms over his chest. “I think I'd know him Yi. He's  _ my  _ brother.” 

Yi Jin hummed, an eyebrow raising. “Okay, so what do you think he'd like?” 

“Blueberry! Everyone likes blueberry!” 

“I don't.” Dean said quietly. Klaus turned to Dean with a betrayed look on his face and Yi Jing beamed. 

“ _ Ha! _ And there you go Klaus. Dean doesn't like it.” 

“Dean!” Klaus whined. “How could you? I thought you were on  _ my  _ side.” 

Diego watched all this with an unconsciously soft smile on his face. His favorite fllavor of pastry was definitely not strawberry, nor was it blueberry but he thought it was cute that they cared to try. 

“If I could-” Grace tried, but Yi shook her head. 

“No, I want to be able to do this for him.” Klaus’ arms dropped as Yi Jin's voice softened. “He gave me a place to stay. More than that, he gave me a place to call  _ home. _ I don't have to worry about being  _ perfect _ or wonder what he wants me to be. Diego knows who I am and keeps me around anyway.” 

Diego blinked, shocked at the emotional outpouring from Yi Jin. 

She usually couldn't stand the mushy, emotional things. It was part of the reason why he and her got along so well, they both liked to skip those parts of any movie or television show. 

“Yeah,” Dean mumbled. “I've only been here for about a month but it's already the best month I've ever had. Diego deserves this.” 

Okay, Diego would be straight up lying if he said that his eyes were dry. 

Dean poked at the lumpy dough again. 

“But, we might want to at least  _ ask _ for Grace's instructions. Because this is a  _ mess.”  _

“Okay,” Klaus nodded. He seemed surprisingly serious. Maybe because Yi and Dean were doing this for a good cause or maybe because Klaus loved the kids almost as much as Diego did. “How about we make half blueberry and half strawberry and he could eat whichever one he wants?” 

Yi's smile bloomed and Dean, while hiding a smile of his own, made a gesture for Grace to come help. She hopped up off the chair and hurried over, grateful and excited to finally help. Diego watched her take the whole tray of ‘pastries’ and immediately dump them into the trash. 

“Okay, so we have to start with our dry ingredients. They need to be separate from the wet ones.” She said while grabbing a bowl. 

Diego may not like strawberry or blueberry but at least when he eats them, they'll actually be edible.    


And just the same way he knows that he will pretend that strawberry is his favorite to piss off Klaus and make Yi Jin happy, he knows that he'd do  _ anything _ to keep Dean and Yi safe. 


End file.
